Full name: The Lobotomist: A Maverick Medical Genius and His Tragic Quest to Rid the World of Mental Illness

Author: Jack El-Hai Year: 2005 Rank: Rating: Original Rating: Pop Rating: Genres/categories: Non Fiction, History, Psychology, Science, Memoirs Purchase/reserch links: LibraryThing Goodreads Amazon ISBNs: 9780470098301 0470098309

The Lobotomist explores one of the darkest chapters of American medicine: the desperate attempt to treat the hundreds of thousands of psychiatric patients in need of help during the middle decades of the twentieth century. Into this crisis stepped Walter Freeman, M.D., who saw a solution in lobotomy, a brain operation intended to reduce the severity of psychotic symptoms. Drawing on Freeman's documents and interviews with Freeman's family, Jack El-Hai takes a penetrating look at the life and work of this complex scientific genius. The Lobotomist explores one of the darkest chapters of American medicine: the desperate attempt to treat the hundreds of thousands of psychiatric patients in need of help during the middle decades of the twentieth century. Into this crisis stepped Walter Freeman, M.D., who saw a solution in lobotomy, a brain operation intended to reduce the severity of psychotic symptoms. Although many patients did not benefit from the thousands of lobotomies Freeman performed, others believed their lobotomies changed them for the better. Drawing on a rich collection of documents Freeman left behind and interviews with Freeman's family, Jack El-Hai takes a penetrating look into the life of this complex scientific genius and traces the physician's fascinating life and work. Similar books: The Lives They Left Behind by Darby Penney Dr. Mutter's Marvels by Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz Charlatan by Pope Brock The Butchering Art by Lindsey Fitzharris Patient H.M. by Luke Dittrich One Doctor by Brendan Reilly MD A Chance Meeting by Rachel Cohen Is There No Place on Earth for Me? by Susan Sheehan The Strange Case of Dr. Couney by Dawn Raffel Bygone Badass Broads by Mackenzi Lee Gumption by Nick Offerman Ten Days in a Mad-House by Nellie Bly October Sky by Homer Hickam The Man Who Loved Only Numbers by Paul Hoffman Thinking in Pictures by Temple Grandin Riding Rockets by Mike Mullane In a Different Key by John Donvan The Autistic Brain by Temple Grandin The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons by Sam Kean The Naked Ape by Desmond Morris